ONCE Removed

The letters of the word ONCE are abstracted, enlarged in materials such as styrofoam and aluminum, and support mylar enlargements. In the accompanying tear-sheets, the letters become the initials of characters in short narrative texts. This device simultaneously provides the characters a place from which to speak, protects their specific identities, yet places them as subjects in exaggerated accounts of bodily estrangement. The narratives outline the continual renegotiation of identity in relation to the body and its voice in the context of kinship, place of origin and spoken discourse. Viewers are encouraged to take away the printed multiples beyond the confines of the gallery.